Welcome back, Tennessee TSA Chapter Presidents! This is the third installment in our Council of Chapter Presidents blog. This month, we have tons of helpful tips for you to take back to your chapters. We’ll teach you how to plan for chapter events like fundraisers, community service projects and parent nights, and also how to get members started on their competitive events in preparation for regional and state conference.

A great year in TSA must always begin by planning events. Conferences can be expensive, but you can always lower the cost by fundraising. Do some research, find out what opportunities there are in your community, and jump on them! Make sure to get everyone excited about the fundraiser and explain the importance of raising money for the chapter. Additional fundraising tips and ideas can be found in the Tennessee TSA Chapter Handbook, available on our website. In addition to fundraising, community service is great way to unite the chapter for an important cause.

Community service allows your chapter to give back to your community. It also opens many opportunities to tell people about TSA and can help gather support for TSA in your community. Additionally, the State Officer Team will be debuting a new Community Service Award at this year’s State Conference. Make sure that your chapter is recognized for your hard work! The application is available on our website.

Another event you may consider planning is a parent night for your chapter. Parent night is a great time to present projects from past years, and to overview the conferences and up-coming events for the present year. Parents love to hear what a great impact TSA has on their children’s lives!

While conference may seem quite a long time from now, it will most certainly creep up on you and your chapter before you know it. For this reason, it is important that your members begin their competitive event preparation as soon as possible. This means having all members decide on the events in which they would like to compete. Having more experienced members speak to your chapter regarding various events may stir some interest and help get things moving. However, remember that there is such a thing as competing in too many events; your members should focus on the few events which most interest them. Finally, distribute the rules to the members for the events which they have chosen, and remind them that following the rules is the key to success!

To conclude, no matter how developed your chapter is at this point, it is never too early to start planning for the future. Whether it’s planning fundraisers, community service projects and fundraisers, or getting started on events, make sure that you are properly preparing your members to succeed. We hope you share this blog post with your chapter officers and use it as a tool in your chapter planning meetings. Please leave a comment below if you have a question. We look forward to seeing everyone in Chattanooga!

Salutations to all chapter presidents! My name is Gus White and I have both the honor and the privilege of serving as your Tennessee TSA State Vice President this year. This will be my 5th year in TSA, and I am more optimistic and enthusiastic about this year in TSA than I have ever been before! I hope you will find this blog both informative and useful as we look to continue our growth as a state association!